Control apparatus and method for wireless communication system supporting cognitive radio

ABSTRACT

A control apparatus and method for a wireless communication system supporting cognitive radio. The control apparatus includes an acquisition unit and a management unit. The acquisition unit is configured to acquire information about at least one factor capable of affecting performance of transferring an access request for a frequency spectrum resource by a communication apparatus, the access request being used for making a request to a device which controls the frequency spectrum allocation for allocating a frequency spectrum to the communication apparatus. The management unit is configured to receive the access request sent by the communication apparatus, and optimize a route for the access request of the communication apparatus according to the acquired factor in the case that the access request contains information indicating that the communication apparatus is a slave apparatus of another communication apparatus.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No.15/510,752, filed Mar. 13, 2017, which is based on PCT filingPCT/CN2015/095761, filed Nov. 27, 2015, which claims priority to CN201410709083.1, filed Nov. 28, 2014, the entire contents of each areincorporated herein by its reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to the field of wirelesscommunication, and particularly to a control apparatus and a controlmethod for a wireless communication system supporting cognitive radio.

BACKGROUND

At present, countries have begun to develop specifications for sharingspectrums granted to specific systems. These spectrums which can beshared by other systems may include, for example, television frequencyband, 3.5 GHz frequency band, 5 GHz frequency band and the like. Thesespecifications require a communication system, when functioning as asecondary system to use a frequency band granted to another system, tofirstly provide, for example, geographic location information of thesecondary system to a device for controlling spectrum allocation, suchas a Geographic Location Data Base (GLDB), thereby acquiring anavailable spectrum resource determined by the GLDB according to thegeographic location information. For example, when the geographiclocation or a system parameter of the secondary system is changed, thesecondary system needs to re-access the GLDB. Further, the secondarysystem may be configured to access the GLDB periodically in order toensure that the spectrum resource is constantly effective.

SUMMARY

A brief summary of the embodiments of the present disclosure areprovided below to provide some basic understanding to some aspects ofthe present disclosure. It should be understood that the summary is notexhaustive, and is not intended to identify a crucial or important partof the present disclosure or limit the scope of the present disclosure.The only purpose is to give some conception in a simplified manner as aprelude to the detailed description provided later.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provideda control apparatus for a wireless communication system supportingcognitive radio, which includes an acquisition unit and a managementunit. The acquisition unit is configured to acquire information on atleast one factor which can influence transmission performance of anaccess request for a spectrum resource from a communication apparatus,the access request being lit used for requesting a device forcontrolling spectrum allocation to allocate a spectrum to thecommunication apparatus. The management unit is configured to receivethe access request transmitted by the communication apparatus, andperform optimization on a routing of the access request from thecommunication apparatus according to the acquired factor in a case thatthe access request contains information indicating that thecommunication apparatus is a slave apparatus for another communicationapparatus.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there isprovided a control method fir a wireless communication system supportingcognitive radio. The method includes acquiring information on at leastone factor which can influence transmission performance of an accessrequest for a spectrum resource from a communication apparatus, theaccess request being used for requesting a device for controllingspectrum allocation to allocate a spectrum to the communicationapparatus. The method further includes receiving the access requesttransmitted by the communication apparatus, and performing optimizationon a routing of the access request from the communication apparatusaccording to the acquired factor in a case that the access requestcontains information indicating that the communication apparatus is aslave apparatus for another communication apparatus.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there isprovided a control apparatus for a wireless communication systemsupporting cognitive radio, which includes a communication unit and acontrol unit. The communication unit is configured to receive an accessrequest for a spectrum resource from a first cognitive radio apparatusmanaged by the control apparatus. The control unit is configured toparse an apparatus parameter of the first cognitive radio apparatus todetermine routing information of the access request from the firstcognitive radio apparatus, and to provide available spectrum resourceinformation for the first cognitive radio apparatus in response to theaccess request and on the basis of the routing information. The routinginformation corresponds to a second cognitive radio apparatus, and thefirst cognitive radio apparatus is capable of communicating with thesecond cognitive radio apparatus using a spectrum resource available tothe second cognitive radio apparatus.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there isprovided a control method for a wireless communication system supportingcognitive radio. The method includes receiving an access request for aspectrum resource from a first cognitive radio apparatus. The methodfurther includes parsing an apparatus parameter of the first cognitiveradio apparatus to determine routing information of the access requestfrom the first cognitive radio apparatus, and providing availablespectrum resource information for the first cognitive radio apparatus inresponse to the access request and on the basis of the routinginformation. The routing information corresponds to a second cognitiveradio apparatus, and the first cognitive radio apparatus is capable ofcommunicating with the second cognitive radio apparatus using a spectrumresource available to the second cognitive radio apparatus.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there isprovided a control apparatus for a wireless communication systemsupporting cognitive radio, which includes a communication unit and acontrol unit. The communication unit is configured to receive accessrequests for spectrum resources from multiple cognitive radioapparatuses. The control unit is configured to merge, based on timecharacteristics of the access requests for spectrum resources ofmultiple cognitive radio apparatuses, the access requests for spectrumresources from corresponding multiple cognitive radio apparatuses into asingle access request, and to control the communication unit to transmitthe single access request to a device for controlling spectrumallocation, so as to allocate spectrum resources to the multiple radioapparatuses.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there isprovided a control method for a wireless communication system supportingcognitive radio. The method includes receiving access requests forspectrum resources from multiple cognitive radio apparatuses. The methodfurther includes merging, based on time characteristics of the accessrequests for spectrum resources of multiple cognitive radio apparatuses,the access requests for spectrum resources from corresponding multiplecognitive radio apparatuses into a single access request, andcontrolling a communication unit to transmit the single access requestto a device for controlling spectrum allocation, so as to allocatespectrum resources to the multiple cognitive radio apparatuses.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there isprovided a cognitive radio apparatus, which includes a control unit anda communication unit. The control unit is configured to generate anapparatus parameter of the cognitive radio apparatus based on a secondcognitive radio apparatus to which the cognitive radio apparatuscurrently accesses, where the apparatus parameter includes routinginformation corresponding to the second cognitive radio apparatus. Thecommunication unit is configured to transmit the apparatus parameter toa control apparatus for the cognitive radio apparatus to obtainavailable spectrum resource information provided by the controlapparatus.

The apparatus and the method according to the embodiments of the presentdisclosure are advantageous for at least one of the following aspects:reducing the overall communication overhead when the cognitive radioapparatus accesses the device for controlling spectrum allocation inorder to obtain a authorization for the spectrum resource; and reducingthe possibility of the information interaction between the cognitiveradio apparatus and the device for controlling spectrum allocation suchas the GLIB being interrupted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure can be better understood by referring to thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings. Same or similar reference characters indicate same or similarparts throughout the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawingsare included in the description together with the followingspecifications as a part of the description for further illustratingpreferred embodiments with examples and explaining the principle andadvantages of the present disclosure. In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of acontrol apparatus for a wireless communication system supportingcognitive radio according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is flow chart illustrating a process example of a control methodfor a wireless communication system supporting cognitive radio accordingto another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of acontrol apparatus according to another embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a process example of a controlmethod according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of acontrol apparatus according to another embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a process example of a controlmethod according to another embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of acognitive radio apparatus according to another embodiment of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a wireless communicationsystem supporting cognitive radio according to another embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a wireless communicationsystem supporting cognitive radio according to another embodiment of thepresent disclosure;

FIGS. 10 and 11 are schematic diagrams for illustrating a communicationbetween a cognitive radio apparatus and a control apparatus according toan embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a computer to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a smartphone to which the technology of the presentdisclosure may be applied;

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram for illustrating an exemplary process ofthe information interaction between the communication apparatus, thecontrol apparatus and the GLDB according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram for illustrating an exemplary process ofthe information interaction between the control apparatuses according tothe embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present disclosure are described below with referenceto the companying drawings. Elements and features described in acompanying drawing or an embodiment may be combined with elements andfeatures illustrated in one or more other companying drawings orembodiments in the present disclosure. It should be noted thatpresentation and explanation of irrelevant components and processesknown by those skilled in the art are omitted in the companying drawingsand the description for clarity,

FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration example of a control apparatus 100for a wireless communication system supporting cognitive radio accordingto an embodiment of the present disclosure.

The control apparatus 100 includes an acquisition unit 110 and amanagement unit 120.

The acquisition unit 110 is configured to acquire information on atleast one factor which can influence transmission performance of anaccess request for a spectrum resource from a communication apparatus.

The communication apparatus may include a cognitive radio apparatuswhich can use a frequency band granted to another system (for example,television frequency band, 3.5 GHz, frequency band, 5 GHz, frequencyband and the like) for communication. In some examples, such acommunication apparatus is also referred to as a secondary system or asecondary user. Correspondingly, a communication system which isauthorized to use the frequency band is referred to as a primary systemor a primary user. For example, the primary system may be a broadcasttelevision system or a radar system, while the secondary system is aWiFi communication system which opportunistically uses a broadcasttelevision frequency band or a radar operation frequency band. Asanother example, the primary system may be a WiFi communication system,while the secondary system is a cellular communication apparatus whichopportunistically uses a WiFi frequency band. In order to use thesefrequency bands, in a mainstream cognitive radio technology, thecommunication apparatus needs to transmit an access request for aspectrum resource to a device for controlling spectrum allocation, torequest the device for controlling spectrum allocation (which is alsoreferred to as spectrum allocation device in the following) to allocatea spectrum to the communication apparatus, thereby ensuring that noharmful interference will be caused to normal operation of the primarysystem. The spectrum allocation device may include, for example, aGeoLocation Data Base (GLDB) defined ETSI RRS standard series or anAdvanced Geolocation Engine (AGE). Correspondingly, the access requestfor the spectrum resource may include geographic location information ofthe communication apparatus. The GLDB may determine a spectrum resourceavailable to the communication apparatus based on the geographiclocation information and an interference suppression requirement of theprimary system, and inform the communication apparatus of the spectrumresource information. It is to be noted that, the primary system asmentioned herein is not necessarily a communication system that hasabsolute authorized access to the spectrum. In some examples, secondarysystems may be assigned to different priorities, and a resource isallocated to a secondary system with a lower priority in a case thatresource requirements of secondary systems with higher priorities havebeen preferably met. In such examples, the secondary system with ahigher priority also opportunistically uses the resource of the primarysystem, but it becomes a protected subject to a certain extent, and thusmay be considered as a primary system in relation to a secondary systemwith a lower priority.

The factor which can influence transmission performance of the accessrequest for the spectrum resource from the communication apparatus mayinclude but not limited to a frequency of the access request, a locationof the communication apparatus which transmits the access request, and amobility of the communication apparatus which transmits the accessrequest.

Based on different spectrum sharing specifications, the access requestfor the spectrum resource transmitted by the communication apparatus tothe spectrum allocation device may have different time configurations.For example, a spectrum sharing specification may prescribe that aspecific communication apparatus accesses the GLDB with a predeterminedperiod to acquire an available spectrum resource. More particularly, forexample, it may be prescribed that a specific type of communicationapparatus or a communication apparatus located in a specific locationarea is required to transmit the access request with a specific period.In this case, different types of communication apparatuses orcommunication apparatuses located in different location areas may havedifferent access request frequencies, thus the type or the location ofthe communication apparatus may be a factor that influences thetransmission performance of the access request. Specifically, types ofcommunication apparatuses may be divided, for example, based ondifferent levels of maximum output powers of respective communicationapparatuses, based on different levels of out-of-band spurioussuppression capabilities of respective communication apparatuses, orbased on interferences of respective communication apparatuses on othercommunication systems such as the primary system. Further, types ofcommunication apparatus may also be divided based on priorities of thecommunication apparatuses on using the spectrum resource, for example,an access period of a type of communication system with a lower prioritymay be shorter than that of a type of communication system with a higherpriority. All the possible cases are not exemplified one by one in thepresent disclosure. In addition, the above different location areas maybe determined based on, for example, distances from the primary system.In another example, it may be prescribed that the communicationapparatus is to re-access the GLDB when a location variation of thecommunication apparatus exceeds a predetermined level. In this case,communication apparatus with different movement characteristics accessthe GLDB at different frequencies. The mobility of the communicationapparatus becomes a factor that influences the transmission performanceof the access request. As another example, small cell base stations in awireless communication system based on Long Term Evolution (LIE), whenserving as communication apparatuses, may adopt different switchintermittence in order to save energy or to reduce interferences. Eachtime when a small cell base station is turned on, the small cell basestation may need to re-access the GLDB to acquire an available spectrumresource. In this case, the switch time configuration of thecommunication apparatus such as the small cell base station becomes afactor that influences the transmission performance of the accessrequest (such as an access period/access frequency). In summary, basedon different spectrum sharing specifications, there may be multiplefactors that influence the transmission performance of the accessrequest, which is not limited to the specific examples in the presentdisclosure.

The acquisition unit 110 may acquire information on the above factors invarious manners. For example, according to a specific spectrum sharingspecification, the acquisition unit 110 may derive a predeterminedperiod of an access request from a communication apparatus according tothe type or location of the communication apparatus (for example,reported by the communication apparatus). Alternatively, the acquisitionunit 110 may estimate the frequency of the access request from thecommunication apparatus based on information such as the mobility of thecommunication apparatus (for example, reported by the communicationapparatus or derived according to history location information of thecommunication apparatus). Alternatively, the acquisition unit 110 mayobtain the frequency of the access request from the communicationapparatus based on history information of the access request transmittedby the communication apparatus.

In a case that the above factors need to be acquired based on historyinformation, according to an embodiment, the control apparatus mayinclude a storage unit (not shown in the drawings), which is configuredto store history information on the access request for the spectrumresource from the communication apparatus and/or history information onthe location or movement of the communication apparatus, thereby theacquisition unit 110 can acquire information on the above factors basedon the history information stored in the storage unit.

The management unit 120 is configured to receive the access requesttransmitted by the communication apparatus, and perform optimization ona routing of the access request from the communication apparatusaccording to the acquired factor in a case that the access requestcontains information indicating that the communication apparatus is aslave apparatus for another communication apparatus.

During the communication between the communication apparatus and thespectrum allocation device, the communication apparatus which requeststhe spectrum resource may communicate with the spectrum allocationdevice via another apparatus which can connect to the spectrumallocation device. Specifically, the communication apparatus maytransmit the access request for the spectrum resource to the otherapparatus, which forwards the access request to the spectrum allocationdevice. In this case, the communication apparatus is a slave apparatusfor the other apparatus. In other words, the other apparatus is a masterapparatus for the communication apparatus. In an example of the presentdisclosure, the master apparatus also operates as the cognitive radioapparatus which firstly acquire an available spectrum resource from thespectrum allocation device and then communicates with the slaveapparatus using the available spectrum resource.

As will be described in more detail later, the wireless communicationsystem supporting cognitive radio to which the embodiments of thepresent disclosure may be applied may include a wireless communicationsystem based on Long Term Evolution (LTE) or a wireless communicationsystem based on Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) (for example, based on IEEE802.11af).

For the wireless communication system based on LTE, the controlapparatus according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may belocated on a base station (for example, a macro base station or a smallcell base station) side. The communication apparatus may communicatewith the spectrum allocation device via one of base stations in thesystem. In this case, the communication apparatus is the slave apparatusfor the base station, and the communication apparatus may include, inthe access request, information indicating that the communicationapparatus is the slave apparatus for the base station, such as routinginformation.

For the wireless communication system based on WiFi, the controlapparatus according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may belocated on a server (for example, a Registered Location Security Server(RLSS)) side. The communication apparatus may be connected to the servervia one of WiFi access points in the system, and access the spectrumallocation device via the server. In this case, the communicationapparatus is the slave apparatus for the access point, and thecommunication apparatus may include, in the access request, informationindicating that the communication apparatus is the slave apparatus forthe access point, such as routing information.

For one communication apparatus, there may be multiple candidate masterapparatuses. In other words, the communication apparatus may access thespectrum allocation device via different base stations or access points.The management unit 120 performs optimization on a routing of the accessrequest from the communication apparatus according to the acquiredfactor which can influence transmission performance of the accessrequest for the spectrum resource from the communication apparatus. Theoptimization on the routing indicates changing a relay node for theaccess request thereby improving transmission performance of the accessrequest. As will be described in more detail later in conjunction withspecific embodiments, this optimization may include reducing thedifference between the frequency of the access request for the spectrumresource from the communication apparatus and the frequency of theaccess request for the spectrum resource from the master apparatus forthe communication apparatus, or increasing the stability of a linkbetween the communication apparatus and the master apparatus for thecommunication apparatus, or the like.

In the communication system supporting cognitive radio to which theembodiments of the present disclosure may be applied the masterapparatus for the communication apparatus (the communication apparatusaccesses the spectrum allocation device via the master apparatus) mayalso use a spectrum resource including a frequency band granted toanother system by transmitting an access request for the spectrumresource. Correspondingly, the master apparatus also needs to transmitthe access request based on a predetermined spectrum sharingspecification, for example, with a predetermined period or according toother time configurations.

According to a specific embodiment, the management unit of the controldevice may be configured to re-determine a master apparatus for thecommunication apparatus (the communication apparatus accesses thespectrum allocation device via the master apparatus), such that thedifference between the frequency of the access request for the spectrumresource from the communication apparatus and the frequency of theaccess request for the spectrum resource from the master apparatus forthe communication apparatus is reduced. For example, in a case that thecommunication apparatus and the master apparatus for the communicationapparatus needs to transmit the access request with a specified period,the acquisition unit may acquire periods of access requests from thecommunication apparatus, the master apparatus for the communicationapparatus and other candidate master apparatuses (for example, otherbase stations or access points that can serve as relay nodes for thecommunication apparatus). In a case that the period of the accessrequest from a certain candidate master apparatus is closer to theperiod of the access request from the communication apparatus ascompared with the current master apparatus, the communication apparatusmay be informed to take the candidate master apparatus as the masterapparatus. In some examples of the present disclosure, the controlapparatus for the communication apparatus may also communicate with aneighboring control apparatus which manages, for example, a neighboringgeographic location area, thereby acquiring GLDB access periods, and/orinformation such as switch configurations, geographic locations,transmission powers, movement characteristics of all (or only some) ofthe communication apparatuses managed by the neighboring controlapparatus. In such an example, the control apparatus selects the abovecandidate master apparatus from the communication apparatuses managed byitself and communication apparatuses managed by the neighboring controlapparatus, thereby determining the master apparatus, for example, ofwhich the access period is closest to the access period of communicationapparatus.

Further, the management unit may also be configured to transmit theaccess requests from the communication apparatus and the masterapparatus for the communication apparatus to the spectrum allocationdevice as a single access request. For example, in a case that a timedifference between the access request from the communication apparatusand the access request from the master apparatus for the communicationapparatus is less than a predetermined threshold, these access requestsmay be transmitted as a single access request, thereby reducing anoverall communication overhead due to access the spectrum allocationdevice and the load on the spectrum allocation device for separatelyresponding to each access request. In a case of performing the aboveoptimization on the routing such that the difference between thefrequency of the access request for the spectrum resource from thecommunication apparatus and the frequency of the access request for thespectrum resource from the master apparatus for the communicationapparatus is reduced, more access requests can be merged andtransmitted.

In addition, in a case of performing the above optimization on therouting such that the difference between the frequency of the accessrequest for the spectrum resource from the communication apparatus andthe frequency of the access request for the spectrum resource from themaster apparatus of the communication apparatus is reduced, themanagement unit may also be configured to inform the communicationapparatus to synchronize a timing of the access request therefrom with atiming of the access request from the master apparatus for thecommunication apparatus. In a case that the timing of the access requestfrom the communication apparatus is synchronized with the timing of theaccess request from the master apparatus for the communicationapparatus, these synchronized access requests can be transmitted to thespectrum allocation device as a single access request, thereby furtherreducing the overall communication overhead due to access to thespectrum allocation device.

In another aspect, the objects of the optimization on the routing of theaccess request from the communication apparatus may include improvingthe stability of the link between the communication apparatus and themaster apparatus for the communication apparatus. Correspondingly,according to a specific embodiment, the management unit is configured tore-determine a master apparatus for the communication apparatus, suchthat the stability of the link between the communication apparatus andthe master apparatus for the communication apparatus is improved.

It is to be noted that, the stability of the link may depend not only ona factor of signal strength between the communication apparatus and themaster apparatus, but also on the mobility of the communicationapparatus and/or the master apparatus for the communication apparatus,and the like. For example, the communication apparatus may select themaster apparatus for the communication apparatus according to the signalstrength. However, if the location of the master apparatus is frequentlychanged, it is possible that the master apparatus needs to frequentlyaccess the spectrum allocation device, and may not be able to continueto use a certain spectrum resource due to a failure in a correspondingconnection, which may cause the communication apparatus to be unable toaccess the spectrum allocation device via the master apparatus, therebyreducing the stability of the link. In addition, in a case that thecommunication apparatus has a high mobility, it is desirable that themaster apparatus has a signal coverage that can ensure a stable networkconnection during movement of the communication apparatus.

Therefore, the management unit is configured to consider, whenperforming optimization on the routing of the access request from thecommunication apparatus, factors including but not limited to a distancebetween the master apparatus and the communication apparatus, themovement of the master apparatus, and the signal coverage of the masterapparatus. In some examples of the present disclosure, the controlapparatus for the communication apparatus may also communicate with aneighboring control apparatus which manages, for example, a neighboringgeographic location area thereby acquiring information such astransmission powers, geographic locations, movement characteristics, andswitch configurations of all (or only some) of the communicationapparatuses managed by the neighboring control apparatus. In such anexample, the control apparatus selects the master apparatus from thecommunication apparatuses managed by itself and communicationapparatuses managed by the neighboring control apparatus, therebydetermining the master apparatus of which, for example, the signalcoverage, the signal strength and the timing all meet the communicationrequirements of the communication apparatus.

In the following, an overview of a method according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure is provided without repeatedly describing certaindetails which are discussed in the above.

The method according to the embodiment may be applied to a wirelesscommunication system supporting cognitive radio. The method, forexample, may be executed by a base station or a server, or may beexecuted by a control apparatus communicatively connectable to acommunication apparatus in the communication system.

As shown in FIG. 2 , in step S210, information on at least one factorwhich can influence a transmission performance of an access request fora spectrum resource from a communication apparatus is acquired. Theaccess request being used for requesting a device for controllingspectrum allocation to allocate a spectrum to the communicationapparatus. The factor which can influence transmission performance ofthe access request for the spectrum resource from the communicationapparatus may include, for example, a frequency of the access request, alocation of the communication apparatus, and a movement of thecommunication apparatus.

Next, in step S220, the access request transmitted by the communicationapparatus is received.

In a case that the access request contains information indicating thatthe communication apparatus is a slave apparatus for anothercommunication apparatus (Y in step S230), in step S240, optimization isperformed on a routing of the access request from the communicationapparatus according to the acquired factor.

The optimization may include re-determining the master apparatus for thecommunication apparatus, such that the difference between the frequencyof the access request from the communication apparatus and that of itsmaster apparatus is reduced.

The frequency of the access request may be determined according to aspecific spectrum sharing specification. Further, the frequency of theaccess request may be determined based on history information on theaccess request from the communication apparatus.

For example, in a case that a time difference between the access requestfrom the communication apparatus and the access request from the masterapparatus for the communication apparatus is less than a predeterminedthreshold, these access requests may be transmitted as a single accessrequest. In addition, a timing of the access request from thecommunication apparatus may be synchronized with a timing of the accessrequest from the master apparatus, thus the synchronized access requestscan be transmitted to the spectrum allocation device as a single accessrequest.

In another aspect, optimization of the routing of the access request mayinclude re-determining a master apparatus for the communicationapparatus, such that the stability of a link between the communicationapparatus and the master apparatus for the communication apparatus isimproved. For example, the above optimization may be performed accordingto one or more of the following factors: a distance between the masterapparatus and the communication apparatus, a movement of the masterdevice and a signal coverage of the master apparatus.

FIG. 3 illustrates a configuration example of a control apparatus 300for a wireless communication system supporting cognitive radio accordingto another embodiment of the present disclosure.

The management object of the control apparatus 300 includes a cognitiveradio apparatus which can communicate using a frequency band granted toanother system (for example, television frequency band, 3.5 GHzfrequency band, 5 GHz frequency band and the like). In order to usethese frequency bands, the cognitive radio apparatus needs to transmitan access request for a spectrum resource to a spectrum allocationdevice, to request the spectrum allocation device to allocate a spectrumto the cognitive radio apparatus. The spectrum allocation device mayinclude, for example, a GeoLocation Data Base (GLDB). Correspondingly,the access request for spectrum resource may include geographic locationinformation of the cognitive radio apparatus, and the GLIB may determinea spectrum resource available to the cognitive radio apparatus based onthe geographic location information, and inform the cognitive radioapparatus of the available spectrum resource information.

The control apparatus 300 includes a communication unit 310 and acontrol unit 320.

The communication unit 310 is configured to receive an access requestfor a spectrum resource from a first cognitive radio apparatus managedby the control apparatus 300. In addition, as will be described later,the communication unit 310 may also be configured to communicate withthe cognitive radio apparatus, the spectrum allocation device or thelike, in order to, for example, transmit the access request from thecognitive radio apparatus to the spectrum management device, provide thespectrum allocation information from the spectrum allocation device tothe cognitive radio apparatus, and the like.

The control unit 320 is configured to parse an apparatus parameter ofthe first cognitive radio apparatus to determine routing information ofthe access request from the first cognitive radio apparatus, and toprovide available spectrum resource information for the first cognitiveradio apparatus in response to the access request and on the basis ofthe routing information, where the routing information may indicate asecond cognitive radio apparatus, and the first cognitive radioapparatus is capable of communicating with the second cognitive radioapparatus using a spectrum resource available to the second cognitiveradio apparatus.

The apparatus parameter may contain, for example, information indicatingthat the first cognitive radio apparatus is the slave apparatus foranother apparatus (that is, the second cognitive radio apparatus).

For example, the apparatus parameter may contain, for example,information defined in the extended capabilities element described insection 8.4.2.24 of IEEE 802.11af.

In addition, it is to be noted that, the apparatus parameter may betransmitted together with the access request for the spectrum resource,or may be transmitted separately from the access request. For example,according to a specific spectrum sharing specification, the spectrumresource allocated by the spectrum allocation device has a specificvalid period. For example, when the valid period of the spectrumresource is expired, the communication apparatus retransmits a currentapparatus parameter together with an access request for a spectrumresource to the spectrum allocation device, such that the spectrumallocation device reallocates a spectrum resource. As another example,during the valid period of the allocated spectrum resource, thecommunication apparatus may transmit a spectrum request to the spectrumallocation device in order to confirm that the currently used spectrummay continue to be used, or available spectrum resources are not updatedin the GLDB. However, the apparatus parameter is not necessarilytransmitted together with the access request each time when the accessrequest is transmitted. For example, the cognitive radio apparatus maytransmit the apparatus parameter thereof when transmitting acommunication initialization request. After that, the apparatusparameter is updated only in a case that the apparatus parameter ischanged due to a variation in the location of the cognitive radioapparatus.

In this embodiment, even in a case that no available spectrum resourceis allocated, the first cognitive radio apparatus can still communicatewith the second cognitive radio apparatus, to which an availablespectrum resource is allocated, using the spectrum resource of thesecond cognitive radio apparatus, thereby, for example, communicatingwith the spectrum allocation device via the second cognitive radioapparatus in order to obtain allocation of an available spectrumresource.

According to an embodiment, the control unit 320 may be configured tocontrol the communication unit 310 to transmit a reconfiguration requestto the first cognitive radio apparatus, where the reconfigurationrequest may include routing information specified by the controlapparatus 300. That is, the control apparatus 300 may indicate, throughthe communication unit 310, the first cognitive radio apparatus tochange its master apparatus.

Specifically, the control unit 310 may re-determine the master apparatusfor the first cognitive radio apparatus based on a time characteristicof the access request for a spectrum resource from the first cognitiveradio apparatus. For example, in a case that the first cognitive radioapparatus transmits the access request with a predetermined period, thecontrol unit 310 may determine an apparatus having a period of accessrequest closest to that of the first cognitive radio apparatus as themaster apparatus for the first cognitive radio apparatus. In addition,the control unit 310 may re-determine the master apparatus for the firstcognitive radio apparatus based on the mobility information of the firstcognitive radio apparatus. For example, in a case that the firstcognitive radio apparatus moves frequently, the master apparatus for thefirst cognitive radio apparatus may be determined based on signalcoverage and the like, in order to, for example, ensure stability of theconnection.

In addition, the reconfiguration request transmitted by the control unit320 to the first cognitive radio apparatus may also include a timeconfiguration of the access request specified by the control apparatus300. That is, the control apparatus 300 may instruct, through thecommunication unit 310, the first cognitive radio apparatus to changethe timing for initiating the access request.

Specifically, the control unit 320 may be configured to determine thetime configuration of the access request specified for the firstcognitive radio apparatus based on a time characteristic of the accessrequest for the spectrum resource from the first cognitive radioapparatus corresponding to the routing information.

In a case that the timing of the access request from the first cognitiveradio apparatus is synchronized with the timing of the access requestfrom the master apparatus for the first cognitive radio apparatus, orthe time difference between the access requests is less than apredetermined threshold, the control unit 320 is further configured tomerge access requests for spectrum resources respectively from the firstcognitive radio apparatus and the master apparatus for the firstcognitive radio apparatus into a single access request and to controlthe communication unit 310 to transmit the single access request to thespectrum allocation device, so as to provide the available spectrumresource information for the first cognitive radio apparatus and themaster apparatus for the first cognitive radio apparatus.

Correspondingly, in a case that the available spectrum resourceinformation is provided by the spectrum allocation device in response tothe access request, the control unit 320 may be configured to includethe available spectrum resource information for the first cognitiveradio apparatus in an available spectrum resource indication message forthe master apparatus for the first cognitive radio apparatus, therebyproviding the available spectrum resource information to the firstcognitive radio apparatus via the master apparatus for the firstcognitive radio apparatus.

With the above configuration, the overall communication overheadassociated with spectrum allocation can be effectively reduced.

In the following, an overview of a method corresponding to the aboveembodiment is provided without repeatedly describing certain detailswhich are discussed in the above.

The method according to this embodiment may be applied to a wirelesscommunication system supporting cognitive radio. For example, the methodmay be executed by a base station or a server, or may be executed by acontrol apparatus communicatively connectable to a cognitive radioapparatus in the communication system.

As shown in FIG. 4 , the control method for the wireless communicationsystem supporting cognitive radio according to this embodiment includesstep S410, in which an access request for spectrum resource from a firstcognitive radio apparatus is received.

In step S420, an apparatus parameter of the first cognitive radioapparatus is parsed to determine routing information of the accessrequest from the first cognitive radio apparatus, where the routinginformation corresponds to a second cognitive radio apparatus, and thefirst cognitive radio apparatus is capable of communicating with thesecond cognitive radio apparatus using a spectrum resource available tothe second cognitive radio apparatus.

In step S430, available spectrum resource information is provided forthe first cognitive radio apparatus in response to the access requestand on the basis of the routing information.

FIG. 5 illustrates a configuration example of a control apparatus 500for a wireless communication system supporting cognitive radio accordingto another embodiment of the present disclosure.

The control apparatus 500 includes a communication unit 510 and acontrol unit 520. The control apparatus 500 according to this embodimentis capable of controlling access requests for spectrum resources fromtwo or more cognitive radio apparatuses.

The communication unit 510 is configured to receive access requests forspectrum resources from multiple cognitive radio apparatuses.

The control unit 520 is configured to merge, based on timecharacteristics of the access requests for spectrum resources frommultiple cognitive radio apparatuses, corresponding multiple accessrequests into a single access request, and to control the communicationunit 510 to transmit the single access request to a device forcontrolling spectrum allocation, so as to allocate spectrum resources tothe multiple radio apparatuses.

The access requests merged into a single access request may be accessrequests from some of the cognitive radio apparatus managed by thecontrol apparatus 500. For example, in a case that access requests fromthe managed cognitive radio apparatuses have different periods, accessrequests from cognitive radio apparatus having the same or similarperiods may be merged into a single access request.

Further, the control unit 520 may also control the communication unit510 to instruct a controlled cognitive radio apparatus to change thetime configuration of the access request from the cognitive radioapparatus, such that timings of access requests from at least some ofthe cognitive radio apparatus are synchronized, thus the control unit520 can merge the synchronized access requests from these cognitiveradio apparatus into a single access request.

With the above configuration, the overall communication overhead due toaccess to the spectrum allocation device can be effectively reduced.

Correspondingly, embodiments of the disclosure further include a controlmethod for a wireless communication system supporting cognitive radio.

As shown in FIG. 6 , in step S610, access requests for spectrumresources from multiple cognitive radio apparatuses are received.

Next, in step S620, based on time characteristics of access requests forspectrum resources from multiple cognitive radio apparatuses,corresponding multiple access requests are merged into a single accessrequest. Here, the corresponding multiple access requests may includeaccess requests from some of the managed cognitive radio apparatuses.

Then, in step S630, the single access request is transmitted to a devicefor controlling spectrum allocation, so as to allocate spectrumresources to the multiple cognitive radio apparatuses.

A cognitive radio apparatus is further provided according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 7 , the cognitiveradio apparatus 700 according to the embodiment of the presentdisclosure includes a control unit 710 and a communication unit 720.

The control unit 710 is configured to generate an apparatus parameter ofthe cognitive radio apparatus based on a second cognitive radioapparatus to which the cognitive radio apparatus currently accesses,where the apparatus parameter includes routing information correspondingto the second cognitive radio apparatus. That is, the control unit 710may generate information indicating that the cognitive radio apparatus700 is to serve as a slave apparatus for another cognitive radioapparatus.

As described above, the apparatus parameter may be transmitted togetherwith the access request for the spectrum resource, or may be transmittedseparately from the access request.

The communication unit is configured to transmit the apparatus parameterto a control apparatus for the cognitive radio apparatus 700 to obtainavailable resource information provided by the control apparatus. Thecontrol apparatus may include control apparatuses according to theembodiments of the present disclosure described above with reference toFIG. 1, 3 or 5 .

According to this embodiment, even in a case that no available spectrumresource is allocated, the cognitive radio apparatus can stillcommunicate with the spectrum allocation device via the second cognitiveradio apparatus to which an available spectrum resource is allocated,such as the control apparatus, in order to obtain allocation of anavailable spectrum resource.

According to a specific embodiment, the communication unit 720 isfurther configured to receive a reconfiguration request from the controlapparatus, where the reconfiguration request may include routinginformation specified by the control apparatus. In other words, thecognitive radio apparatus 700 can change its master apparatus accordingto an instruction from the control apparatus.

Specifically, the reconfiguration request may include a timeconfiguration of an access request for an available spectrum resourcefrom the cognitive radio apparatus specified by the control apparatus.For example, the cognitive radio apparatus 700 may change a period, aspecific timing and the like of the access request thereof according toan indication from the control apparatus. Thus, the control apparatuscan merge the access request from the cognitive radio apparatus 700 andan access request from the master apparatus for the cognitive radioapparatus 700 and transmit the merged access request to the spectrumallocation device, thereby reducing the communication overhead foraccess to the spectrum allocation device.

In addition, the control unit 710 may be configured to access, based onthe reconfiguration request from the control apparatus, a thirdcognitive radio apparatus corresponding to the routing informationspecified by the control apparatus, to transmit the access request forthe available spectrum resource via the third cognitive radio apparatus.In other words, the cognitive radio apparatus 700 can transmit theaccess request via a new master apparatus according to an instructionfrom the control apparatus, where the new master apparatus is, forexample, an apparatus having a time configuration of the access requestcloser to that of the cognitive radio apparatus 700, or which canprovide a more stable connection.

Further, a wireless communication system supporting cognitive radio isfurther provided according to an embodiment of the present disclosure,the system includes the control apparatus 100, 300 or 500 according tothe above embodiments.

The wireless communication system according to the embodiment of thepresent disclosure may include a wireless communication system based onLong Term Evolution (LTE) or a wireless communication system based onWireless Fidelity (WiFi). In the following, an exemplary wirelesscommunication system is described in conjunction with schematic diagramsshown in FIGS. 8 and 9 .

As shown in FIG. 8 , in a wireless communication system based on LTE, acognitive radio apparatus 810 is within the cover ranges (which arerespectively indicated by 824 and 834) of base station 820 and basestation 830, where the base station 820 and the base station 830 mayinclude macro base stations or small cell base stations. In the shownexample, the cognitive radio apparatus 810 is a mobile phone. However,the cognitive radio apparatus 810 may include other types of cognitiveradio apparatuses.

The base station 820 and the base station 830 are respectively providedwith a control apparatus 822 and a control apparatus 830, which may havethe configuration described above in conjunction with specificembodiments.

The base station 820 and the base station 830 may be connected to aspectrum allocation device such as a GLDB 850 via a core network 840,and acquire available spectrum resources by transmitting access requestsfor spectrum resources to the GLDB 850.

The cognitive radio apparatus 810 may take one of the base station 820and the base station 830 as the master apparatus for transmitting theaccess request for the spectrum resource to the GLDB 850.

Further, a communication link 870 such as an X2 interface may beprovided between the base station 820 and the base station 830, forcommunication between the base station 820 and the base station 830.With the communication link 870, the base station 820 and the basestation 830 may exchange, for example, information such as GLDB accessperiods, and/or switch configurations, geographic locations,transmission powers, movement characteristics and the like of all (oronly some) of communication apparatuses respectively managed by the basestation 820 and the base station 830, in order to check whether acommunication apparatus managed by one of the base station 820 and thebase station 830 is more suitable to be served by the other. Forexample, in a case of the base station 820 determining in the mannerdescribed in the above embodiments that the cognitive radio apparatus810 is more suitable to be served by the base station 830, a handoverrequest associated with the cognitive radio apparatus 810 is transmittedto the base station 830 via the communication link 870, and base stationconfiguration information transmitted by the base station 830 isacquired, in order to perform a handover configuration, includingmodification of a database access manner, on the cognitive radioapparatus 810.

The control apparatus 822 or 832 may instruct the cognitive radioapparatus 810 to change the master apparatus for the cognitive radioapparatus 810 in the manner described above, for example, according tothe time configuration of the access request, such that, for example,the time configuration of the access request from the cognitive radioapparatus 810 is closer to the time configuration of the access requestfrom the master apparatus for the cognitive radio apparatus 810, thusthe access request from the cognitive radio apparatus 810 and the accessrequest from the master apparatus for the cognitive radio apparatus 810can be transmitted to the GLDB 850 as a single access request.

As shown in FIG. 9 , in a wireless communication system based on WiFi, acognitive radio apparatus 910 is within the cover ranges (which arerespectively indicated by 922 and 923) of an access point 920 and anaccess point 930. In the shown example, the cognitive radio apparatus910 is a portable computer. However, the cognitive radio apparatus 910may be other cognitive radio apparatuses.

The access point 920 and the access point 930 are respectively connectedto servers such as registered location security servers 950 and 960.Servers 950 and 960 are respectively provided with a control apparatus952 and a control apparatus 962, which may have the configurationdescribed above in conjunction with specific embodiments.

The access point 920 and the access point 930 may be connected to aspectrum allocation device such as a GLDB 970 via the server 950 and theserver 960, and obtain available spectrum resources by transmittingaccess requests for spectrum resources to the GLDB 970. A link 942 maybe provided between the server 950 and the server 960 for communication.With the link 942, the server 950 and the server 960 may exchange, forexample, information such as GLDB access periods, and/or switchconfigurations, geographic locations, transmission powers, movementcharacteristics and the like of all (or only some) of communicationapparatuses respectively managed by the server 950 and the server 960,in order to determine whether a communication apparatus managed by oneof the server 950 and the server 960 is more suitable to be served bythe other. For example, in a case that the server 950 determines in themanner described in the above embodiments that the cognitive radioapparatus 910 is more suitable to be served by the access point 930managed by the server 960, a handoff request associated with thecognitive radio apparatus 910 is transmitted to the server 960 via thelink 942, and node configuration information of the access point 930transmitted by the server 960 is acquired, in order to perform areconfiguration, including modification of a database access manner, onthe cognitive radio apparatus 910.

The cognitive radio apparatus 910 may take one of the access point 920and the access point 930 as the master apparatus for transmitting theaccess request for the spectrum resource to the GLDB 970.

The control apparatus 952 or 960 may instruct the cognitive radioapparatus 910 to change the master apparatus for the cognitive radioapparatus 910 in the manner described above, for example, according tothe time configuration of the access request, such that, for example,the time configuration of the access request from the cognitive radioapparatus 910 is closer to the time configuration of the access requestfrom the master apparatus for the cognitive radio apparatus 910, thusthe access request from the cognitive radio apparatus 910 and the accessrequest from the master apparatus for the cognitive radio apparatus 910can be transmitted to the GLDB 970 as a single access request.

In the following, a specific example of communication between thecognitive radio apparatus, which is shown in the drawings as a CognitiveRadio System (CRS), and the control apparatus according to theembodiments of the present disclosure, which is shown in the drawings asa Spectrum Coordinator (SC) is described with reference to FIGS. 10 and11 .

As shown in FIG. 10 , the CRS transmit a coordinated_channel_requestcommand for requesting a coordinated channel resource to the SC, thecommand may include function information of the CRS, Which includes, forexample, information on whether the GLBD may be accessed to via anotherCRS, an IP address of the CRS, and the like. The SC responds to thecommand and transmits a coordinated_channel_Confirm command forconfirming the above request, thereby establishing a connection.

For example, the function information of the CRS may be indicated by thefollowing exemplary pseudo code, where -- indicate annotations:

--Device capacity DeviceCapability ::= SEQUENCE{  --The number ofantennas at the requesting CRS numberOfAntennas  INTEGER  --Capabilityto access GLDB via another CRS. 0 unable to access GLDB via another CRS;1 able to access GLDB via another CRS. accessRoutingEnabled BOOLEAN--Routing information for accessing GLDB routeCRS OCTET STRING--Priority access of the CRS priority AccessTrue BOOLEAN --expected QoSof priority access expectedQoS QoS

As shown in FIG. 11 , in a case that the SC requires the CRS to bereconfigured, for example, an access routing and a time configuration ofthe access request to be adjusted, the SC may transmit a reconfigurationrequest command CRS_Reconfiguration_Request to the CRS. The CRS performsreconfiguration according to the command and transmits a reconfigurationresponse command CRS_Reconfiguraiton_Response to the SC.

The routing information and/or the time configuration information of theaccess request to be updated may be added into the reconfigurationrequest.

For example, CRS reconfiguration information may be indicated by thefollowing exemplary pseudo code:

--GLDB access routing and timing information accessTiming accessTiming--Routing information for accessing GLDB routeCRS OCTET STRING,  wherethe time information is defined as follows: DatabaseAccessTiming ::=SEQUENCE{ --start time of GLDB access in UTC startTime UTCTime --Updatetimer [seconds] updateTimer REAL, }

Next, an example process of information interaction between thecommunication apparatus, the control apparatus and the GLDB according toan embodiment of the present disclosure is described with reference toFIG. 14 . Here, the GLDB is an example of the spectrum allocation devicein the above embodiments.

In 1410, a communication apparatus 3 accesses a network of acommunication apparatus 2 for using a spectrum granted to a primarysystem as a secondary system, and accesses the control apparatus via thecommunication apparatus 2. Then, the control apparatus exchanges adatabase access information with the GLDB. At this time, thecommunication apparatus 2 also performs information exchange with theGLDB for using the spectrum granted to the primary system as thesecondary system. For example, the communication apparatus 2 transmits ageographic location and then acquires an available spectrum resource.During this process, the communication apparatus informs the controlapparatus whether the communication apparatus accesses the GLDB viaother nodes using a spectrum which in not granted to the communicationapparatus. In this case, the communication apparatus 2 is the masterapparatus, while the communication apparatus 3 acts as the slaveapparatus. That is, the communication apparatus 3 acts as a slaveapparatus when connecting to the network of the communication apparatus2. When the communication apparatus 3 accesses the database to acquirean available spectrum resource, and uses the available spectrum resourceto establish a new network, the communication apparatus 3 becomes amaster apparatus of the network thereof. This mode is referred to as abootstrap mood. Therefore, the communication apparatus, when accessingthe data, shall inform the control apparatus of whether thecommunication apparatus is connected to the database as a slaveapparatus via another apparatus. For example, this information may beindicated by the communication apparatus setting a bootstrap-modeidentifier. If the communication apparatus is connected to the databaseas a slave apparatus via another apparatus, the communication apparatusmay provide information of the node to which the communication apparatusaccesses, such as an IP address, a MAC address or physical cell ID (PCI)in LIE.

In 1412, the control apparatus determines an optimization scheme for thecommunication apparatus 3 to access the GLDB, for example, according theabove embodiments.

In 1420, the control apparatus informs the communication apparatus 3 ofoptimized database access routing information. For example, in a casethat the communication apparatus 2 is an LTE network apparatus, such asan eNB, the communication apparatus 2 may transmits the information tothe communication apparatus 3, such as an LIE, which acts as the slaveapparatus thereof, as data information or neighboring node informationin a System Information Block (SIB), for example. In addition, theinformation may also be transmitted as control information in asignaling such as a PDCCH, ePDCCH or the like. The information may be anidentification of another communication apparatus, for example, aphysical cell ID of an eNB, or may be an IP address, a MAC address in aWiFi network. Further, the information may further include coordinateddatabase access time configuration information such as periodinformation.

In 1422, the communication apparatus 3 searches for a specified networkfor connection according to a received database access modificationinformation. For example, in this example, it is determined by theoptimization scheme that the communication apparatus 3 is connected tothe control apparatus via the network of the communication apparatus 1,and accesses the database via the control apparatus. Each of thecommunication apparatuses 1, 2 and 3 may access the database via thecontrol apparatus.

In 1430, the communication apparatus 3 is connected to the controlapparatus via the network of the communication apparatus 1, and accessesthe database via the control apparatus.

In 1432, the control apparatus may merge the database access informationfrom the communication apparatus 1 and the communication apparatus 2 into a single database access information carrying two geographic locationparameters and parameters of two communication apparatuses, rather thantwo separate pieces of database access information. In 1440, the GLDB isaccessed with a single access request.

After reception of feedback information from the database, in 1442, thecontrol apparatus parses the feedback information from the database andextracts available spectrum resource information for multiplecommunication systems, and transmit the available spectrum resourceinformation to respective communication apparatuses in 1450.

During the above process, if there are multiple control apparatusesmanaging different communication apparatuses in a certain area, thecontrol apparatuses may exchange data with each other therebytransferring management of a communication apparatus. FIG. 15 is aschematic diagram illustrating an exemplary process of the informationinteraction between control apparatuses according to an embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

In 1510, the control apparatus acquires database access networkinformation, which varies according to optimization schemes adopted bythe control apparatus. For example, if the principle that the periods ofaccess requests are to be as consistent as possible is followed, thedatabase access network information includes information on GLOB accessperiods supported by the control apparatus 2. Alternatively, if theprinciple based on movement characteristics is followed, information onthe movement of the communication apparatus is provided.

In 1512, the control apparatus 1 determines whether there is acommunication apparatus managed by the control apparatus 1 which is moresuitable for the control apparatus 2. For example, the database accessperiod of a certain communication apparatus is closer to the databaseaccess period of the communication apparatus managed by the controlapparatus 2.

In a case that a management needs to be transferred, in 1520, thecontrol apparatus 1 transmits a communication system transfer request tothe control apparatus 2.

If the control apparatus 2 accepts this request, in 1530, network nodeinformation of the control apparatus 2 such as a cell ID or a MACaddress of a cell base station is transmitted.

After reception of the network node information, in 1532, theinformation is transmitted to the communication apparatus Which need ahandover.

Besides the above embodiments, various electronic apparatuses forwireless communication system supporting cognitive radio are furtherprovided according to the embodiments of the present disclosure. Theelectronic apparatus includes circuits or one or more processorsconfigured to perform various operations described in the above specificembodiments. For example, an electronic apparatus for wirelesscommunication system supporting cognitive radio includes circuits or oneor more processors configured to: acquire information on at least onefactor which can influence transmission performance of an access requestfor a spectrum resource from a communication apparatus, the accessrequest being used for requesting a device for controlling spectrumallocation to allocate a spectrum to the communication apparatus; andreceive the access request transmitted by the communication apparatus,and perform optimization on a routing of the access request from thecommunication apparatus according to the acquired factor in a case thatthe access request contains information indicating that thecommunication apparatus is a slave apparatus for another communicationapparatus.

It is further provided an electronic apparatus for wirelesscommunication system supporting cognitive radio according to theembodiments of the present disclosure, which includes circuits or one ormore processors configured to: receive an access request for a spectrumresource from a first cognitive radio apparatus: and parse an apparatusparameter of the first cognitive radio apparatus to determine routinginformation of the access request from the first cognitive radioapparatus, and provide available spectrum resource information for thefirst cognitive radio apparatus in response to the access request and onthe basis of the routing information, where the routing informationcorresponds to a second cognitive radio apparatus, and the firstcognitive radio apparatus is capable of communicating with the secondcognitive radio apparatus using a spectrum resource available to thesecond cognitive radio apparatus.

It is further provided an electronic apparatus for wirelesscommunication system supporting cognitive radio according to theembodiments of the present disclosure, which includes circuits or one ormore processors configured to: receive access requests for spectrumresources from multiple cognitive radio apparatuses; and merge, based ontime characteristics of the access requests for spectrum resources fromthe multiple cognitive radio apparatuses, corresponding multiple accessrequests into a single access request, and control the communicationunit to transmit the single access request to a device for controllingspectrum allocation, so as to allocate spectrum resources to themultiple radio apparatuses.

As an example, various steps of the above methods and various componentsand/or units of the above device may be implemented in software,firmware, hardware or a combination thereof. In a case of implementingin software or firmware, a program of a software for implementing theabove methods may be installed from a storage medium or a network to acomputer (such as the general-purpose computer 1200 shown in FIG. 12 )having dedicated hardware. The computer can perform various functions ifinstalled with various programs.

In FIG. 12 , a computation processing unit a CPU) 1201 executes variousprocessing according to a program stored in a Read Only Memory (ROM)1202 or a program loaded to a Random Access Memory (RAM) 1203 from astorage device 1208. In the RAM 1203, if necessary, data required forthe CPU 1201 in executing various processing and the like is alsostored. The CPU 1201, the ROM 1202 and the RAM 1203 are linked to eachother via a bus 1204. An input/output interface 1205 is also linked tothe bus 1204.

The following components are linked to the input/output interface 1205:an input device 1206 including a keyboard, a mouse and the like, anoutput device 1207 including a display such as a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)and a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), a speaker and the like, the storagedevice 1208 such as a hard disk and the like, and a communication device1209 such as a network interface card like a LAN card, a modem and thelike. The communication device 1209 performs communication processingvia a network such as the Internet. If necessary, a drive 1210 can alsobe linked to the input/output interface 1205. A removable medium 1211such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, asemiconductor memory and the like is mounted on the drive 1210 asrequired such that a computer program read out therefrom is installed inthe storage device 1208 as required.

In a case that the series of processing above is implemented insoftware, a program constituting the software is installed from thenetwork such as the Internet or the storage medium such as the removablemedium 1211.

It is understood by those skilled in the art that the storage medium isnot limited to the removable medium 1211 shown in FIG. 13 in which theprogram is stored and which is distributed separately from the device soas to provide the program to the user. Examples of the removable medium1211 include a magnetic disk including a Floppy Disk (registeredtrademark), an optical disk including a Compact Disk Read Only Memory(CD-ROM) and a Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), a magneto-optical diskincluding a MiniDisc (MD) (registered trademark), and a semiconductormemory. Alternatively, the storage medium may be the ROM 1202, the harddisk contained in the storage device 1208 or the like. Herein, theprogram is stored in the storage medium, and the storage medium isdistributed to the user together with the device containing the storagemedium.

Embodiments of the present disclosure also relates to a program producton which machine-readable instruction codes are stored. The instructioncodes can perform the methods according to the above embodiment whenread and executed by a machine.

Accordingly, the present disclosure also includes storage mediumcarrying the program product on which the machine-readable instructioncodes are stored. The storage media includes a soft-disk, an opticaldisk, a magnetic disk, a storage card, a storage stick and the like, butis not limited thereto.

The embodiments of the present disclosure also relates to the followingelectronic apparatus. When applied on a side of a base station, theelectronic apparatus may be realized as any type of evolved Node B (eNB)such as a macro eNB and a small eNB. The small eNB may be an eNB such asa pico eNB, a micro eNB, and a home (femto) eNB that covers a cellsmaller than a macro cell. Alternatively, the electronic apparatus maybe realized as any other types of base stations such as a NodeB and abase transceiver station (BTS). The electronic apparatus may include amain body (that is also referred to as a base station apparatus)configured to control radio communication, and one or more remote radioheads (RRH) disposed in a different place from the main body. Inaddition, various types of terminals, which will be described below, mayeach serves as the base station by temporarily or semi-persistentlyexecuting a base station function.

In a case of being applied on a side of a user equipment, the electronicapparatus may be realized as a mobile terminal such as a smartphone, atablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal,a portable/dongle type mobile router, and a digital camera, or anin-vehicle terminal such as a car navigation apparatus. Furthermore, theelectronic apparatus may be a radio communication module (such as anintegrated circuit module including a single wafer or multiple wafers)mounted on each of the terminals.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematicconfiguration of a smartphone 2500 to which the technology of thepresent disclosure may be applied. The smartphone 2500 includes aprocessor 2501, a memory 2502, a storage 2503, an external connectioninterface 2504, a camera 2506, a sensor 2507, a microphone 2508, aninput device 2509, a display device 2510, a speaker 2511, a radiocommunication interface 2512, one or more antenna switches 2515, one ormore antennas 2516, a bus 2517, a battery 2518, and an auxiliarycontroller 2519.

The processor 2501 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on a chip(SoC), and controls functions of an application layer and another layerof the smartphone 2500. The memory 2502 includes RAM and ROM, and storesa program that is executed by the processor 2501, and data. The storage2503 may include a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory and ahard disk. The external connection interface 2504 is an interface forconnecting an external device such as a memory card and a universalserial bus (USB) device to the smartphone 2500.

The camera 2506 includes an image sensor such as a charge coupled device(CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), andgenerates a captured image. The sensor 2507 may include a group ofsensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyro sensor, a geomagneticsensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 2508 converts soundsthat are input to the smartphone 2500 to audio signals. The input device2509 includes, for example, a touch sensor configured to detect touchonto a screen of the display device 2510, a keypad, a keyboard, abutton, or a switch, and receives an operation or an information inputfrom a user. The display device 2510 includes a screen such as a liquidcrystal display (LCD) and an organic light-emitting diode (OLED)display, and displays an output image of the smartphone 2500. Thespeaker 2511 converts audio signals that are output from the smartphone2500 to sounds.

The radio communication interface 2512 supports any cellularcommunication scheme such as LET and LTE Advanced, and performs radiocommunication. The radio communication interface 2512 may typicallyinclude, for example, a BB processor 2513 and alt RF circuit 2514. TheBB processor 2513 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding,modulating/demodulating, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and performsvarious types of signal processing for radio communication. Meanwhile,the RF circuit 2514 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and anamplifier, and transmits and receives radio signals via the antenna2516. The radio communication interface 2512 may be a one chip modulehaving the BB processor 2513 and the RF circuit 2514 integrated thereon.The radio communication interface 2512 may include the multiple 1313processors 2513 and the multiple RF circuits 2514, as illustrated inFIG. 13 . Although FIG. 13 illustrates the example in which the radiocommunication interface 2512 includes the multiple BB processors 2513and the multiple RF circuits 2514, the radio communication interface2512 may also include a single BB processor 2513 or a single RF circuit2514.

Furthermore, in addition to a cellular communication scheme, the radiocommunication interface 2512 may support another type of radiocommunication scheme such as a short-distance wireless communicationscheme, a near field communication scheme, and a radio local areanetwork (LAN) scheme. In that case, the radio communication interface2512 may include the BB processor 2513 and the RF circuit 2514 for eachradio communication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 2515 switches connection destinations ofthe antennas 2516 among multiple circuits (such as circuits fordifferent radio communication schemes) included in the radiocommunication interface 2512.

Each of the antennas 2516 includes a single or multiple antenna elements(such as multiple antenna elements included in an MIMO antenna), and isused for the radio communication interface 2512 to transmit and receiveradio signals. The smartphone 2500 may include the multiple antennas2516, as illustrated in FIG. 13 . Although FIG. 13 illustrates theexample in which the smartphone 2500 includes the multiple antennas2516, the smartphone 2500 may also include a single antenna 2516.

Furthermore, the smartphone 2500 may include the antenna 2516 for eachradio communication scheme. In that case, the antenna switches 2515 maybe omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 2500.

The bus 2517 connects the processor 2501, the memory 2502, the storage2503, the external connection interface 2504, the camera 2506, thesensor 2507, the microphone 2508, the input device 2509, the displaydevice 2510, the speaker 2511, the radio communication interface 2512,and the auxiliary controller 2519 to each other. The battery 2518supplies power to blocks of the smartphone 900 illustrated in FIG. 13via feeder lines, which are partially shown as dashed lines in thefigure. The auxiliary controller 2519 operates a minimum necessaryfunction of the smartphone 2500, for example, in a sleep mode.

In the above description of embodiments of the present disclosure, afeature described and/or illustrated in an embodiment may be applied toone or more other embodiments in a same or similar manner, or max becombined with a feature in other embodiments, or may replace a featurein other embodiments.

It should be emphasized that, the term “include/contain”, as used in thepresent disclosure, means existence of a feature, an element, a step ora component, but does not exclude existence or addition of one or moreother features, elements, steps or components.

In the above examples and embodiments, numeric reference characters areused for representing various steps and/or units, Those skilled in theart should understand that the reference characters are only used forfacilitating description and illustration rather than representing anorder or other limits.

Furthermore, the methods in the present disclosure are not limited to beperformed in the time order as described, but may be performed in othertime orders or in parallel or independently. Therefore, the performingorder of the method described in the present disclosure is not a limitto the technical scope of the present disclosure.

Although the invention is disclosure by describing the above embodimentof the present disclosure, it should be noted that each of the aboveexample and embodiment is not for limiting but for illustrating. Thoseskilled in the art may make various modifications, improvements andequivalents within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Themodifications, improvements and equivalents should also be included inthe protection scope of the present disclosure.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for a wireless communicationsystem, comprising: a processing circuitry configured to: receive anaccess request for a spectrum resource from a first apparatus managed bythe apparatus, wherein the access request comprises an indication thatthe first apparatus is a slave of a second apparatus; parse an apparatusparameter of the first apparatus to determine routing information of theaccess request from the first apparatus, wherein the routing informationidentifies the second apparatus; and provide available spectrum resourceinformation about an available spectrum resource for the first apparatusin response to the access request and on the basis of the routinginformation, wherein the first apparatus is capable of communicatingwith the second apparatus using the available spectrum resource.
 2. Theapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to transmit a reconfiguration request to the firstapparatus, wherein the reconfiguration request comprises routinginformation or a time configuration of the access request.
 3. Theapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to determine a third apparatus based on a timecharacteristic of the access request for the spectrum resource from thefirst apparatus, the specified routing information corresponding to thethird apparatus.
 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to determine a thirdapparatus based on mobility information of the first apparatus, thespecified routing information corresponding to the third apparatus. 5.The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to determine the specified time configuration of theaccess request based on a time characteristic of the access request forthe spectrum resource from the apparatus corresponding to the routinginformation.
 6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein theprocessing circuitry is further configured to, merge access requests fora plurality of spectrum resources respectively from the first apparatusand another apparatus into a single access request, and transmit thesingle access request to a device for controlling spectrum allocation,so as to provide the available spectrum resource information for thefirst apparatus and the another apparatus.
 7. The apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured toinclude, in available spectrum resource indication message for thesecond apparatus, the available spectrum resource information for thefirst apparatus.
 8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein theaccess request comprises the apparatus parameter of the first apparatus.9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processing circuitryis further configured to determine the available spectrum resourceinformation based on geographic location information of the firstapparatus.
 10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the accessrequest comprises the geographic location information of the firstapparatus.
 11. A method for a wireless communication system, comprising:receiving an access request for a spectrum resource from a firstapparatus, wherein the access request comprises an indication that thefirst apparatus is a slave of a second apparatus; parsing an apparatusparameter of the first apparatus to determine routing information of theaccess request from the first apparatus, wherein the routing informationidentifies the second apparatus; and providing available spectrumresource information about an available spectrum resource for the firstapparatus in response to the access request and on the basis of therouting information, wherein the first apparatus is capable ofcommunicating with the second apparatus using the available spectrumresource.